The present invention relates to an individual electronic dosimetry installation designed for measuring and surveillance of the radiation dose absorbed by an individual during a stay in a specific room.
It is state-of-the-art to achieve semi-automatic individual electronic dosimetry installations each comprising a certain number of dosimeters, each designed to be carried by a user during his stay in the room subjected to possible radiations, readers located at the entrances and exits of the monitored zone, and a computer-based centralizer generally located outside this zone.
At the entrance to this monitored zone, each portable dosimeter is initialized either by the storage rack in which it is placed at a specific place, or more generally by a reader close to the entrance door: in this case, the dosimeter is constantly carried by the user, who has to insert it in this reader when he passes.
The dosimeter thus activated then measures the accumulated radiation dose to which the user has been exposed throughout his stay in the monitored zone.
When leaving this zone, the user presents his dosimeter to an exit reader, or puts it back in its specific place in the storage rack, which results in the information it contains being transferred to the computer-based centralizer. To perform this reading operation, the user has to remove his dosimeter from its carrying position, generally at chest or waist level, and insert it in a recess in which coupling with a reading device is performed, either by a purely electrical contact or by an infrared or magnetic connection. He also has to identify himself, for example by means of a keyboard entry.
Having to identify oneself and to move the dosimeter has the drawback of making its use singularly complicated, in particular if this dosimeter is worn under protective overalls or if it has to be protected by a case due to risks of contamination or interference.
The reading recess may moreover be contaminated by a dosimeter when the latter is inserted, and it may then transmit this contamination to the other dosimeters subsequently inserted in this recess.
Finally, the fact that each user has to make a stop when entering and leaving the monitored zone reduces the flow of movement and thereby also constitutes an inconvenience to operation.